Alcoholic beverages

This entry should contain ONLY quotes about alcohol in general; quotes about beer or wine specifically should go in those respective entries. An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol — although in chemistry the definition of alcohol includes many other compounds. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits.

No substance in nature, as far as yet known, has, when it reaches the brain, such power to induce mental and moral changes of a disastrous character as alcohol. Its transforming power is marvelous, and often appalling. It seems to open a way of entrance into the soul for all classes of foolish, insane or malignant spirits, who, so long as it remains in contact with the brain, are able to hold possession.

Timothy Shay Arthur, Grappling with the Monster; Or, The Curse and the Cure of Strong Drink (1877), Ch. 4.

Or merry swains, who quaff the nut-brown ale,
And sing enamour'd of the nut-brown maid.

The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.

Well I ain't seen my baby since I don't know when,
I've been drinking bourbon whiskey, scotch and gin
Gonna get high man I'm gonna get loose,
Need me a triple shot of that juice
Gonna get drunk don't you have no fear
I want one bourbon, one scotch and one beer
One bourbon, one scotch, one beer.

The harsh, useful things of the world, from pulling teeth to digging potatoes, are best done by men who are as starkly sober as so many convicts in the death-house, but the lovely and useless things, the charming and exhilarating things, are best done by men with, as the phrase is, a few sheets in the wind.

In man, social intercourse has centred mainly on the process of absorbing fluid into the organism, but in the domestic dog and to a lesser extent among all wild canine species, the act charged with most social significance is the excretion of fluid.

The horse and mule live thirty years
And nothing know of wines and beers;
The goat and sheep at twenty die,
With never a taste of scotch or rye;
The cow drinks water by the ton,
And at eighteen is mostly done.
Without the aid of rum or gin
The dog at fifteen cashes in;
The cat in milk and water soaks,
And then at twelve years old it croaks;
The modest, sober, bone-dry hen
Lays eggs for nogs and dies at ten;
All animals are strictly dry;
They sinless live and swiftly die,
While sinful, gleeful, rum-soaked men
Survive for three score years and ten.
And some of us - a mighty few -
Stay pickled 'till we're ninety-two.

If you are invited to drink at any man's house more than you think is wholesome, you may say "you wish you could, but so little makes you both drunk and sick; that you should only be bad company by doing so."

Nothing in Nature's sober found,
But an eternal Health goes round.
Fill up the Bowl then, fill it high—
Fill all the Glasses there; for why
Should every Creature Drink but I?
Why, Man of Morals, tell me why?

Let the farmer praise his grounds,
Let the huntsman praise his hounds,
The shepherd his dew scented lawn,
But I more blessed than they,
Spend each happy night and day
With my charming little cruiskeen lan, lan, lan.

Tell me I hate the bowl? Hate is a feeble word;
I loathe, abhor—my very soul and strong disgust is stirred
Whene'er I see or hear or tell of the dark beverage of hell.

Attributed to John B. Gough; denied by him.

It's a long time between drinks.

The Governor of South Carolina required the return of a fugitive slave. The Governor of North Carolina hesitated because of powerful friends of the fugitive. He gave a banquet to his official brother. The Governor of South Carolina in a speech demanded the return of the slave and ended with "What do you say?" The Governor of North Carolina replied as above. It is also attributed to Judge Ædanus Burke.

If you'd dip in such joys, come—the better, the quicker!—
But remember the fee—for it suits not my ends
To let you make havoc, scot free, with my liquor,
As though I wore one of your heavy-pursed friends.

Quoted by Washington Irving—Sketch-book, Stratford-on-Avon. They who drink water will think water. (Travesty of the foregoing.)
Nor shall our cups make any guilty men;
But at our parting, we will be, as when
We innocently met.

Let those that merely talk and never think,
That live in the wild anarchy of drink.

Ben Jonson, Underwoods, An Epistle, answering to One that asked to be sealed of the Tribe of Ben.

Just a wee deoch-an-doris, just a wee yin, that's a'.
Just a wee deoch-an-doris before we gang a-wa',
There's a wee wifie waitin', in a wee but-an-ben;
If you can say "It's a braw bricht moon-licht nicht
Y're a 'richt ye ken.

Myrtale often smells of wine, but, wise,
With eating bay-leaves thinks it to disguise:
So nott with water tempers the wine's heate,
But covers it. Henceforth if her you meete
With red face and swell'd veynes, modestly say,
"Sure Myrtale hath drunk o' th' bayes today?"

I cannot eat but little meat,
My stomach is not good;
But sure I think that I can drink
With him that wears a hood.

Bishop Still, Gammer Gurton's Needle, Act II. Authorship of the song claimed for William Stevenson of Durham. (Died 1575) In Hutchinson's Songs of the Vine. Said to be found in old Manuscript. See Skelton Works, Volume I. Note to pages VII-X. Dyce's ed. Gammer Gurton's Needle claimed for John Bridges.

For drink, there was beer which was very strong when not mingled with water, but was agreeable to those who were used to it. They drank this with a reed, out of the vessel that held the beer, upon which they saw the barley swim.